Trying to verify identity of Pakistani held in Chile: Krishna

India is making efforts to ascertain whether the Pakistani man arrested in Chile is Abdul Rauf, one of the key conspirators of the Indian Airlines IC-814 hijacking of 1999, before taking further action, including a request for extradition, foreign minister SM Krishna said in New Delhi today.

India is making efforts to ascertain whether the Pakistani man arrested in Chile is Abdul Rauf, one of the key conspirators of the Indian Airlines IC-814 hijacking of 1999, before taking further action, including a request for extradition, foreign minister SM Krishna said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

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"Our intelligence agencies have deputed their representative to go to that country and make an assessment whether it is the same person who is responsible for the hijacking. If it so, then all necessary follow up action will be initiated," Krishna told reporters.

An Indian team has already reached Chilean capital Santiago to verify the identification of the man, which may be difficult as India does not have any fingerprints or photographs of the 1999 hijacking conspirator. The team is expected to return to India April 19.

Krishna said that India had to be "first convinced that it is the same person".

"That is why we have deputed our man there so that they can come back and report to us. Depending on the report we get, we will take further action," he added.

The CBI has been looking for Abdul Rauf, brother-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Maulana Masood Azhar, who was one of the three terrorists released by India in exchange for more than 150 hostages aboard the hijacked plane that was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The terrorists were exchanged after eight days of negotations.